African Americans in the Civil War

Roman Robinson Kristen Anderson HIST 3060 February 25, 13 African Americans and the courteous contend The role African Americans played in the outcome, and the road to the outcome of the Civil struggle was immense. The fact that the southeast had slaves and the north did non played an coarse role in the outputs. The north wanted to abolish slavery, and the south did non and after the war started this became champion of the main reasons for the Civil War. Since around African Americans could non read or write, this made them an easy tar birth, for slavery, against the dominant blank man.Once the slaves got to America they started to realize how much trouble they were in reality in. The north and the south had a problem brewing, and that was due to the slave uprisings and the run a ways. African Americans played an enormous role in the outcome of the Civil War because of the part they took in it. The civil war, which took place from 1861 to the 1920s, the African America n community of interests made tremendous strides toward them becoming apart of America and commensurates in America. Since they had been controlled by the power of the whites for so long, their independence was extremely unfamiliar to them, with their new emancipation.Since they were so uncertain, they debated about the about effect way to go about actu twoy receiving the rights they deserved. They did not just want to be inferior Negros. more or less African Americans thought the actual approach would be to go along with the instrumental status the whites held them to, so they could earn their respect until fairness pervaded. Others were more wishful with their thinking and thought the host would make whites surrender and give blacks their basal rights. Those who were hush they are thought that no progress would ever come.These blacks resolved that it was essendial to escape the shackles and cruel attitudes toward blacks. The civil war initi in ally began to unless the coalition. At the start of the war slave masters were terribly shake up that the slaves would run to join the heart and soul and help the war ef beef ups. To subsidize the problem, most owner enforced harsh restrictions on their slaves. Some owners change surface locomote their whole plantations inland to avoid any contact with the outside northerners. This did not stop the slaves one bit though, this just caused more slave to fly to the north. The slaves that did decide to stay just demanded more freedom from their masters.Some would say the ones that stayed level(p) gained more power this forced their masters to give them offerings in trade for work. The issues of emancipation and military service were intertwined from almost the beginning of the war. News from meet Sumter made African Americans rush to enlist in military units. They were all turned away since there was a law dating from 1792 that kept African Americans from joining the U. S. army. In Boston disappointed African Americans met and passed a resolution that requested the Government to modify its laws to permit them to enlist. Then capital of Nebraskas Second Confiscation Act was passed.The act stated that, unites who did not surrender with in sixty days of the acts passage were to be punish by having their slaves freed. The Militia Act was likewise passed. This act stated African Americans were allowed to fight in the war. These two acts together thoroughly punished wax slaveholders. The African Americans that enlisted some(prenominal) fought in the front lines and worked behind the scenes labor jobs. each(prenominal) these rights that the African Americans were receiving inspired them to return home and free their families and friends. Some of them even started living in the plantations that they used to be slaves of.They took them over and began their own cropping. Some of the former(a) plantations had been go away to older disabled white woman, when the men had left for the C onfederate army. All of this led to the separation of slave labor in the south After trying terribly hard to keep the issue of slavery out of the war, the nitrogen decided to start enlisting African Americans to help them fight in the war. The Fifty- quaternary command was created by the kernel Army, and was the single all black unit. This Union in particular contri entirelyed to the war confinements of the North and showed a new found power among blacks.The command started when John Andrew sent a request to the secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, to create a volunteer regiment of African Americans (3). African Americans from all over the country joined. To help inscribe even further they called for help from African American leaders like, Frederick Douglas and William surface Brown. In just two months over one gigabyte African Americans, one from at least every state, had enlisted in the regiment. The leader of the regiment would not be black though, they wanted the superior officer to energize some certain credentials.The job description posted read junior Man of Military Experience Of firm antislavery principles, ambitious, Superior to the vulgar patronage of color Having Faith in the capacity of colored men for military purpose (2) The man picked for the job was Robert Shaw. The African American regiment and their passe-partout set off for Beaufort, confederation Carolina on May 28, 1863 (1). They were to attack assemble Wagner, which was a vital key to Charleston. They only way to storm the fort was to go through loads and loads of Confederates. The sheer size of the Confederates to the Fifty- Fourth regiment was an obstacle in itself.The regiment knew the amount of obstacles they would have to overwhelm to achieve a victory and yet they kept marching. Shaw and a hardly a(prenominal) men marched to the top of the parapet, and there Shaw was shot and killed. Though this was almost a complete disaster for the regiment they had set a path for p rox African American soldiers. Frederick Douglas said, Once let the black man get upon his person the brass letter, U. S. , let him get an eagle on his button, and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pocket, there is no power on earth that can deny that he has earned the right to citizenship. ane thousand seventy-nine African Americans had served in the Civil War. They served in both the U. S. Army and about two thousand served in the Navy. By the quantify the war was over, forty thousand had died in battle and thirty thousand had died of disease and infection. African American soldiers performed all the jobs needed to run an army. They also served as carpenters, chaplains, cooks, guards, laborers, nurses, scouts, spies, steamboat pilots, surgeons, and teamsters (4). There were nearly 80 black commissioned officers (4). Harriet Tubman was the most famous spy she served for the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers.Tubman decided to help the Union Army because she wanted freedom fo r all of the people who were forced into slavery, not just the few she could help by herself. And she convinced many different brave African Americans to join her as spies, even at the assay of being hanged if they were caught (4). Among Harriet Tubman were many other African American women who served as nurses, spies and scouts. Although, no women were allowed to formally join the army. When black troops were captured by the confederate soldiers, they face up harsher punishments than the white troops.In 1863 the Confederate Congress threatened to punish officers of African American troops and enslave the African Americans, if they were captured. As a payoff of this, chairperson Lincoln issued General Order 233, which threatened payback on Confederate prisoners of war, if they mistreated African American troops. This order did scare the Confederates a little, but African American soldiers were still treated harsher than whites. In one of the lash examples of this abuse, Confed erate soldiers shot to death black Union soldiers, captures at citadel Pillow, TN, in 1864().Confederate General Nathan B. Forrest witnessed it all and did nothing to stop it. The President, Abraham Lincoln, issued the Emancipation contract on January 1, 1863. This proclamation eventually led to the freedom of all slaves. The account officially made free all bondsmen in the areas of the Confederacy that were still in rebellion. Slavery although was not abolished in the Border States, Tennessee, or the Union occupied areas of Louisiana and Virginia. The proclamation only affected the states in rebellion, so after the efforts it didnt actually free any slaves.On the other hand, it did arm the Northern war efforts, because they knew they were fighting for a cause. Over five c thousand slaves had escaped to the North by the end of the civil war. legion(predicate) of the escapees joined the Union Army, which tremendously increased its power. As a result of the Emancipation Proclama tion, the thirteenth Amendment was created. The Amendment created on December 18, 1865, legally freed all slaves still in bondage. The final step the Emancipation Proclamation was to depress England and France from arriving to the war on the side of the South.England and France wanted to enter the war on the South side, because the South had supplied them both with cotton and tobacco. England and Frances stance changed when they heard that the war had changed to a fight over slavery. Both nations were opposed to slavery, so ended up giving their support to the Union. That led to the winning of the fight for freedom. Juneteenth was the day created to restrain the emancipation, when the slaves heard about it that midsummer. The holiday is still celebrated today. Abraham Lincoln said, A house divided against itself cannot stand.I believe this government cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free. I do not digest the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall, bu t I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. (3) African Americans along with the rest of the Union were fighting for this freedom and equality that Abraham Lincoln, was talking about. African American contributions were not limited to the role of working the fields in the south or supplying labor for industry in the north.Many African Americans in both south and north participated in either direct or financial backing roles in the military. The War Between the States proved to be a war fought for democracy. The liberation that the slaves had been waiting for, recovered the ideas that founded the United States of America. All men were equal under the law. Since, the African Americans made such a persistent effort the changes were made more quickly. Africans pushed for their own emancipation by resisting their masters and other labor tasks.Although a formal Emancipation Proclamation and Thirteenth Amendment freed blacks in America, it wou ld be a long time before they received all the rights they deserved. The minds of Americans had been so engrained with racism only decades of hard work would lessen this. work Cited 1) Freeman, Elsie, Wynell Burroughs Schamel, and Jean West. The Fight for Equal Rights A Recruiting Poster for Black Soldiers in the Civil War. Social Education 56, 2 (February 1992) 118-120. 2) Blacks in the Civil War. . cobalt College. Web. 3 Mar 2013.